When the mind wonders off – part IX

When we woke up, we went toward the Masai Mara park and realized, somebody got us a map of Uganda behind our windshield wiper. We remembered we talked about our travell plans with our neighbours, but haven’t got the chance to thank them – for they’ve already left.

Masai Mara: It took us some 6 hours to reach the park from the capital. It all seemed like a nice asphalt road on the map, but reality is much different.

And to make the day even more “pleasant” we got stop by the police. They asked us about safety triangles and ensurance – the very things we were talking about, wondering where to get it, for we knew they are mandatory. The long arm of the law checked upon us before we could purchase them. The fine was 25.000 schilings and a visit at the court, but after a few minutes of being very strickt they gave us some hints, we could settle the thing here and there.

We ofered them 6.000 schilings, which is no sum to sneaze at, so they were happy and just let us off with a warning.

The first stop we made afterwards was the car part shop, where we got the magic triangle. Next we bought two reflectors and equiped the car with them – just in case, many locals had them and we didn’t feel like negotiating with the law again.

And finally our first national park. Usually safaris in African parks are expensive and time limited. But here we finally realized the full freedom our vehicle offered us in the wild, since we hadn’t a care in the world about time or rent.

We started the next day really early, to enjoy as much of it in the park aas possible. After some time we saw some twenty elephants calmly walking in the distance, got a good location and possitioned ourselves on the roof to enjoy the sceen. Watching the families of packiderms we accidentaly noticed a lion couple only some 50 feet away. 50 feet away and we on the roof of our four wheeled home.

Rich vegetation, broad land, safari, wild animals, camping in the wild… unforgetable.